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Keen but worried about baby-led weaning.

Hello,
My ds is 6.5 months and I've started to give him some banana, apple, sweet potato. I want to go by the baby led approach and not do the pureed thing but I'm really scared of him choking.

The funny thing is that the first time he had solids was actually a bit of a banana that he "stole" from me! I tried the same the following day and he nearly choked (or maybe he gagged and I panicked).

From then I've been letting him taste the other foods but as purees. He had apple as a puree once but seems to refuse to eat from a spoon most times. Just today I've tried to give him mashed banana on a spoon and he didn't take it. Then I put the banana piece in his hand and he started to eat it! But I must admit that I mashed the top of the banana and let it there, for fear of him choking. He ate 1/4 of the banana!

What do you think? Should I let him eat solids "his"way? I really need to be reassured he's not going to choke...

Re: Keen but worried about baby-led weaning.

any way that you can take a baby 1st aid class to know what to do for choking?
Most breastfeed babies have a very good gag reflex.. and they do a good job getting foods out. Most will throw up before choking.
A child is going to choke on things that are round or hard like pop corn or nuts, and hot dogs grapes, parts of plastic toys.

Re: Keen but worried about baby-led weaning.

Our LO was so interested in solids that we went ahead and gave him some before the "official" six-month mark. Even though I was excited about the approach, I was (and still am a bit) worried about choking. For the first week or so, I mushed up the banana and avocado and put it into his hand that way. Then I moved onto "home fry" shaped pieces of VERY ripe banana. Then I added roasted sweet potato, carrots, etc., gradually heading toward more solid-type foods.

It has given me a lot of confidence to see him kind of gag a bit on the softer things and then either spit them out or keep them in the mouth and gum them more before swallowing. I watch him carefully when he does this and soon noticed that HE was not distressed in the least about what he was doing...even though a couple of times he's coughed and his little eyes have watered. He still just continues to eat happily.

I think the baby CPR class is a great idea since I think that it's important for you to be relaxed too so this is fun for baby (and you). Our pediatrician just showed us how to do a "back blow" if anything got stuck and he was unable to breathe. I still get tense when I introduce something new (yesterday it was wheat toast strips with cream cheese), but thus far he really seems to like feeding himself. ETA: AND he hasn't actually choked at all.